dēgō

1. Agere (ἄγειν) has an effect that exists in time only, like to do; facere, an effect that exists in space also, as to make. The acta are past as soon as the agens ceases, and remain invisible in the memory; the facta cannot properly be said to exist till the faciens ceases. Quintil. ii. 18. The agens is supposed to be in a state of activity of some kind; the faciens in a state of productive activity. 2. Agere means ‘to do’ something for one’s own interest; gerere (ἀγείρειν), for the interest of another, to execute a commission. Cic. Verr. i. 38. Quæ etiamsi voluntate Dolabellæ fiebant, per istum tamen omnia gerebantur. 3. Opus is the result of facere, as the work, ἔργον; factum is the result of agere, as the transaction; res gestæ are deeds [e.g. in war], πράξεις; acta are only political enactments. Cic. Att. xiv. 17. Multa de facto ac de re gesta; the former by the exertions of Amatius, the latter by his own wise and spirited animadversions through Dolabella. 4. Age, agedum, is an earnest exhortation, as ‘On, on!’ I nunc is an ironical exhortation, as ‘Go to!’ 5. Agere means to be active, and in the midst of business; degere, to live somewhere in a state of rest, in voluntary or involuntary inactivity. Tac. Ann. xv. 74. Deum honor principi non ante habetur, quam agere inter homines desierit, compared with iv. 54. Certus procul urbe degere. (v. 327.)